The Union of People for Education and Science (SLON; russian: Союз людей за образование и науку, партия СЛОН, Soyuz lyudey za obrazovaniye i nauku, Partiya SLON, Elephant Party) was a
social-liberal
Social liberalism (german: Sozialliberalismus, es, socioliberalismo, nl, Sociaalliberalisme), also known as new liberalism in the United Kingdom, modern liberalism, or simply liberalism in the contemporary United States, left-liberalism ...
political party that existed in
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
from 2002 to 2007.
The party was formed by a group of politicians who left
Yabloko
The Russian United Democratic Party Yabloko (RUDP Yabloko) (russian: Росси́йская объединённая демократи́ческая па́ртия «Я́блоко», Rossíyskaya obyedinyónnaya demokratícheskaya pártiya "Y ...
, led by
Vyacheslav Vladimirovich Igrunov. Their political priorities included social protection, general liberal values, and support for science and education. The party received 0.17% of the vote in the
2003 Russian legislative election
Legislative election were held in Russia on 7December 2003.Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p1642 At stake were the 450 seats in the State Duma (''Gosudarstvennaya Duma''), the lower house of the F ...
. On October 30, 2004, the party joined a coalition with the
Patriotic Party of Russia. On March 21, 2005, the party signed an agreement with the
Russian Party of Life
The Russian Party of Life (RPL; russian: Российская партия жизни; РПЖ, Rossiyskaya partiya zhizni; RPZh) was a political party in Russia, led by Sergey Mironov (Speaker of the Federation Council, the upper house of the Rus ...
. On August 8, 2006, the
ruled that the party lacks the legally required number of members, and it was dissolved in February 2007.
History
On 20 February 2003, the party held a protest against an upcoming education reform and the government's proposed reduction in spending on science. SLON called on the Russian authorities to abandon their policy of austerity towards education and science.
In 2003, Vladimir Shakhtin, a member of the Central Council of the party and a prominent opposition figure in the
Komi Republic
The Komi Republic (russian: Республика Коми; kv, Коми Республика), sometimes simply referred to as Komi, is a republic of Russia located in Eastern Europe. Its capital is the city of Syktyvkar. The population of the ...
, was elected head of the . In the elections to the regional Duma of the
Sverdlovsk Oblast
Sverdlovsk Oblast ( rus, Свердловская область, Sverdlovskaya oblast) is a federal subject (an oblast) of Russia located in the Ural Federal District. Its administrative center is the city of Yekaterinburg, formerly known as S ...
, the SLON bloc received first place. In 2006, a criminal case was opened against Shakhtin for failure to comply with the decision of the Arbitration Court of the Republic to accept residential buildings on the city's balance sheet, as a result of which he was removed from the post of head of the city. In 2007, the case against Shakhtin was dropped due to the his repentance. Vladimir Shakhtin himself linked his resignation to his party affiliation and refusal to cooperate with
United Russia
United Russia ( rus, Единая Россия, Yedinaya Rossiya, (j)ɪˈdʲinəjə rɐˈsʲijə) is a Conservatism in Russia, Russian conservative List of political parties in Russia, political party. As the largest party in Russia, it hold ...
:
References
External links
Official web siteOfficial web site of Vyacheslav Vladimirovich Igrunov
2002 establishments in Russia
2007 disestablishments in Russia
Social liberal parties
Political parties established in 2002
Political parties established in 2007
{{Russia-party-stub